matlab: understanding matlab behavior - matlab

Could somebody explain the following code snippet? I have no background in computer science or programming and just recently became aware of Matlab. I understand the preallocation part from data=ceil(rand(7,5)*10)... to ...N*(N-1)/2).
I need to understand every aspect of how matlab processes the code from kk=0 to the end. Also, the reasons why the code is codified in that manner. There's no need to explain the function of: bsxfun(#minus), just how it operates in the scheme of the code.
data=ceil(rand(7,5)*10);
N = size(data,2);
b=cell(N-1,1);
c=NaN(size(data,1),N*(N-1)/2);
kk=0;
for ii=1:N-1
b{ii} = bsxfun(#minus,data(:,ii),data(:,ii+1:end));
c(:,kk+(1:N-ii)) = bsxfun(#minus,data(:,ii),data(:,ii+1:end));
kk=kk+N-ii;
end

Start at zero
kk=0;
Loop with ii going from 1 up to N-1 incrementing by 1 every iteration. Type 1:10 in the command line of matlab and you'll see that it outputs 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10. Thuis colon operator is a very important operator to understand in matlab.
for ii=1:N-1
b{ii} = ... this just stores a matrix in the next element of the cell vector b. Cell arrays can hold anything in each of their elements, this is necessary as in this case each iteration is creating a matrix with one fewer column than the previous iteration.
data(:,ii) --> just get the iith column of the matrix data (: means get all the rows)
data(:, ii + 1:end) means get a subset of the matrix data consisting of all the rows but only of columns that appear after column ii
bsxfun(#minus, data(:,ii), data(:,ii+1:end)) --> for each column in the matrix data(:, ii+1:end), subtract the single column data(:,ii)
b{ii} = bsxfun(#minus,data(:,ii),data(:,ii+1:end));
%This does the same thing as the line above but instead of storing the resulting matrix of the loop in a separate cell of a cell array, this is appending the original array with the new matrix. Note that the new matrix will have the same number of rows each time but one fewer column, so this appends as new columns.
%c(:,kk + (1:N-ii)) = .... --> So 1:(N-ii) produces the numbers 1 up to the number of columns in the result of this iteration. In matlab, you can index an array using another array. So for example try this in the command line of matlab: a = [0 0 0 0 0]; a([1 3 5]) = 1. The result you should see is a = 1 0 1 0 1. but you can also extend a matrix like this so for example now type a(6) = 2. The result: a = 1 0 1 0 1 2. So by using c(:, 1:N-ii) we are indexing all the rows of c and also the right number of columns (in order). Adding the kk is just offsetting it so that we do not overwrite our previous results.
c(:,kk+(1:N-ii)) = bsxfun(#minus,data(:,ii),data(:,ii+1:end));
Now we just increment kk by the number of new columns we added so that in the next iteration, c is appended at the end.
kk=kk+N-ii;
end;
I suggest that you put a breakpoint in this code and step through it line by line and look at how the variables change in matlab. To do this click on the little dashed line next to k=0; in the mfile, you will see a red dot appear there, and then run the code. The code will only execute as far as the dot, you are now in debug mode. If you hover over a variable in debug mode matlab will show its contents in a tool tip. For a really big variable check it out in the workspace. Now step through the code line by line and use my explanations above to make sure you understand how each line is changing each variable. For more complex lines like b{ii} = bsxfun(#minus,data(:,ii),data(:,ii+1:end)); you should highlight code snippets and ruin these in the command line to see what each part is doing so for example run data(:,ii) to see what that does and then try data(:,ii+1:end)) or even just ii+1:end (well in that case it wont work, replace end with size(data, 2)). Debugging is the best way to understand code that confuses you.

bsxfun(#minus,A,B)
is almost the same as
A-B
The difference is that the bsxfun version will handle inputs of different size: In each dimension (“direction,” if you find it easier to think about that way), if one of the inputs is scalar and the other one a vector, the scalar one will simply be repeated sufficiently often.
http://www.mathworks.com/help/techdoc/ref/bsxfun.html

Related

How to highlight or identify a column with a specific value in matrix?

I would like to highlight or identify a column in a matrix with a specific value in MATLAB. Suppose I have a matrix A = [1 0 1 1 0 1; 1 1 0 0 0 1; 1 0 1 1 0 1; 0 1 1 0 0 1].
The result of the above matrix is a 5th column, as it contains all zeroes. I am also wondering if I could highlight the resulting column for identification. Please help me. I have a very large matrix to work on applying this principle.
How about combining find and all to get the column index of the all-zero column like this?
A = [1 0 1 1 0 1; 1 1 0 0 0 1; 1 0 1 1 0 1; 0 1 1 0 0 1];
ind = find(all(A==0,1))
ind =
5
The second input argument to all is to specify that it's along the first dimension, i.e. rows. It's not really necessary here, but I find that it's a good practice as you're always sure it's the right dimension. This is especially important if there are scenarios where you might get a 1xn vector instead of mxn.
Create a colored matrix:
This is a hack, and I don't necessarily recommend it, but if you really want to do this in MATLAB, this is an alternative. Also, I think you might learn quite a lot about MATLAB when doing this, so it might be worth the time.
You can create a colored plot with all values 1 except those in column 5 that will be 0 (or the other way around, doesn't matter) using imagesc. This will give a plot with only two colors, one for those values that are 1, and one for those that are 0. You can select which colors you want with colormap. Then you create a mesh to determine the location of all the values you want to show, convert the matrix to strings using num2str, and combine it all. You need to experiment some to get the correct locations, as you probably want less padding between the rows than the columns. You can use this answer as a guide. In the end, remove the axes. It should be fairly simple to adapt if you read and try to understand each line of the referenced answer.
The simple approach:
I have a very large matrix...". Such matrices are often not a good idea to include in a report. However, if you really want to, I actually suggest you copy paste it from the variable explorer and into MS Excel (or use xlswrite if you're doing this more than once). Since you know which column you want to color, it should be fairly simple to click the "color button".
The following displays the matrix in the command window with the matching columns in boldface. There may be several matching columns, and arbitrary column values can be matched.
A = [1 0 1 0 0 1; 1 1 0 1 0 1; 1 0 1 0 0 1; 0 1 1 1 0 1]; %// matrix
c = [0;1;0;1]; %// column to be matched
nn = find(all(bsxfun(#eq, A, c),1)); %// indices of matching columns
s = cellstr(num2str(A)); %// cell array of strings, one for each row; all same length
for n = nn %// for each matching column, with index n
s = regexprep(s, '\S+', '<strong>$0</strong>', n); %// make bold n-th value of each cell
end
s = vertcat(s{:}); %// convert back into a char array; all strings have the same length
disp(s); %// display
The result in this example is
Highlighting with red (stderr)
Just for proof of concept, you could highlight some of your data in the command window, although I wouldn't suggest actually doing this. Consider the following code:
A=randi(10,8);
%ind = find(all(A==0,1),1) %for actual data
ind = 5; %manual choice for demonstration
for k=1:size(A,1)
fprintf('%5d ',A(k,1:ind-1));
fprintf(2,'%5d ',A(k,ind));
fprintf('%5d ',A(k,ind+1:end));
fprintf('\n');
end
First we create a dummy matrix for demonstration purposes, and select column ind to highlight. Then we go along from line to line in A, we use fprintf(...) to write the non-highlighted values with a given format, then use fprintf(2,...) to write to stderr in red, then write the rest of the line, then newline. Note that for some reason fprintf(2,...) will not highlight the final character, I guess because usually this is \n and nobody noticed that highlighting is missing there.
Also, you can play around with the formats inside fprintf to suit your needs. If you need to print floating points, something like '%10.8f' might work. Or '%g'. The main point is to have a fixed width+precision for your print in order to get pretty columns.
For the sake of completeness, you can make it even a bit more messy to treat multiple highlightable columns:
A=randi(10,8);
%ind = find(all(A==0,1)) %for actual data
ind=[5 2];
fprintf('A = \n\n');
for k1=1:size(A,1)
for k2=1:size(A,2)
if ismember(k2,ind)
fprintf(2,'%5d ',A(k1,k2));
else
fprintf('%5d ',A(k1,k2));
end
end
fprintf('\n');
end
fprintf('\n');
I also added some extra printouts to make it prettier. Result:
Highlighting with blue (links)
As an afterthought, after some discussion with Luis Mendo, I decided that it's worth overdoing a bit while we're at it. You can turn your numbers into blue-and-underlined hyperlinks, making use of the built-in parsing of the link HTML tag implemented both in disp and in fprintf. Here's the corresponding code:
A=randi(10,8);
ind=[5 2];
fieldlen=5; %width of output fields, i.e. 5 in '%5d'
fprintf('A = \n\n');
for k1=1:size(A,1)
for k2=1:size(A,2)
if ismember(k2,ind)
fprintf([repmat(' ',1,fieldlen-length(num2str(A(k1,k2)))) '%d '],A(k1,k2));
else
fprintf('%5d ',A(k1,k2));
end
end
fprintf('\n');
end
fprintf('\n');
This will turn the elements of the highlighted column(s) into strings of the form '3' for an example value of 3.
Another trick here is that hyperlinks starting with matlab: are parsed as proper matlab commands, which are activated when you click the link. You can try it by typing disp('link') in your command window. By setting ... we make sure that nothing happens when someone clicks on the now-link-valued highlighted numbers.
And on a technical note: we only want to include the actual number in the links (and not the preceding spaces), so we have to manually check the length of the string we are about to print (using length(num2str(A(k1,k2)))) and manually include the rest of the spaces before the number. This is done via the parameter fieldlen which I set at the beginning: this specifies the total width of each printing field, i.e. if we originally had fprintf('%5d',...) then we need to set fieldlen=5; for the same effect. Result:

How to save matrices from for loop into another matrix

I have a 5-by-200 matrix where the i:50:200, i=1:50 are related to each other, so for example the matrix columns 1,51,101,151 are related to each other, and columns 49,99,149,199 are also related to each other.
I want to use a for-loop to create another matrix that re-sorts the previous matrix based on this relationship.
My code is
values=zeros(5,200);
for j=1:50
for m=1:4:200
a=factor_mat(:,j:50:200)
values(:,m)=a
end
end
However, the code does not work.
Here's what's happening. Let's say we're on the first iteration of the outer loop, so j == 1. This effectively gives you:
j = 1;
for m=1:4:200
a=factor_mat(:,j:50:200)
values(:,m)=a;
end
So you're creating the same submatrix for a (j doesn't change) 50 times and storing it at different places in the values matrix. This isn't really what you want to do.
To create each 4-column submatrix once and store them in 50 different places, you need to use j to tell you which of the 50 you're currently processing:
for j=1:50
a=factor_mat(:,j:50:200);
m=j*4; %// This gives us the **end** of the current range
values(:,m-3:m)=a;
end
I've used a little trick here, because the indices of Matlab arrays start at 1 rather than 0. I've calculated the index of the last column we want to insert. For the first group, this is column 4. Since j == 1, j * 4 == 4. Then I subtract 3 to find the first column index.
That will fix the problem you have with your loops. But loops aren't very Matlab-ish. They used to be very slow; now they're adequate. But they're still not the cool way to do things.
To do this without loops, you can use reshape and permute:
a=reshape(factor_mat,[],50,4);
b=permute(a,[1,3,2]);
values=reshape(b,[],200);

Matlab, load adjacency lists (irregular file)

I have already looked here and here, but I'm not sure I found what I need.
I have an irregular file (that represents neighbors of particles 1 to 5) that looks like that
2 3 5
1 3
1 2
1
I am want to figure out a way to load it (as 'something' called A) and do the following things:
Count the number of elements on one line (for instance size(A(1,:)) shall give me 3)
Given an array B (of size 5) select the elements of B corresponding to the indices given by a line (something like B(A(1,:)) shall give me [B(2) B(3) B(5)])
Since you want arrays with size depending on their first index, you're probably left with cells. Your cell A could be such that A{1} equals to [2 3 5] and A{2} to [1 3] in your example etc. To do this you can read your file infile by
fid=fopen(infile,'rt');
A=[];
while 1
nextline=fgets(fid);
if nextline==-1 %EOF reached
break;
end
A{end+1}=sscanf(nextline,'%d');
end
fclose(fid);
%demonstrate use for indexing
B=randi(10,5,1);
B(A{3}) %2-element vector
B(A{4}) %empty vector
Then A{i} is a vector corresponding to the ith line in your file. If the line is empty, then it's the empty vector. You can use it to index B as you want to, see the example above. Note that you should not add a newline at the very end of your infile, otherwise you'll have a spurious empty element for A. If you know in advance how many lines you need to read, this is not an issue.
And the number of entries in line i are given by length(A{i}), with i=1:length(A).

Matlab doesn't recognize empty values at the end of a CSV file line

I am reading with Matlab a CSV file; the file can contain empty values which I want to convert into 0
FID=fopen('/file.txt','r');
text_line = fgetl(FID);
C = textscan(text_line,'%d','delimiter',',','EmptyValue', 0);
If the empty value is in the middle of the line, e.g.
5,,6
everything works fine and the variable C gets
5 0 6
as values. If the empty value is at the end, e.g.
5,6,
Matlab doesn't recognize it and the C variable gets
5 6
as values, instead of
5 6 0
EDIT After Dennis answer:
I don't understand why the number of elements expected is needed, I give the separator, shouldn't it be enough? Anyway I tried and the result is different: with %d%d%d I get
C =
[5] [0x1 int32] [6]
with %d everything is in the first element so
C{1}
ans =
5
0
6
This code snippet is part of a procedure which import a very big CSV matrix into a matlab sparse matrix (see my post Handling a very big and sparse matrix in Matlab) and I guess (not tried yet) that the first approach is faster.
Anyway, my values are actually >290k per line so I guess it wouldn't be a feasible option to specify all the %d
Judging from this answer on matlab central you need to tell Matlab how many values you expect.
In your case I would expect this to translate to:
FID=fopen('/file.txt','r');
text_line = fgetl(FID);
C = textscan(text_line,'%d%d%d','delimiter',',','EmptyValue', 0);

I want to extract a row element in a matrix

X =
4 3
8 3
I want to extract the element in each row of X and do some operation on each of them separably (4,3) and (8,3). however the size of may be different based on some parameters in my code, so I want general formula to do such thing,
How I can use the for loop for solving this issue ?
This link shows how to extract specific lines (or columns) from a matrix http://www.mathworks.com/company/newsletters/articles/matrix-indexing-in-matlab.html
All you have to do is write a loop on an index ii to go through every line.
for ii=1:size(X,1)
a=myfun(X(ii,:));
end